Donald Trump held a rally and nothing chaotic happened for once

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Donald Trump’s Saturday rally in Cleveland almost felt normal after all the violence and tension of the last few days.

Nobody got punched. Secret Service agents didn’t storm the stage. Trump was only interrupted about six times by protesters during his 40-minute speech.

Welcome to the new normal, where a tense Trump rally during which he defends his fans and denies they’ve been violent is just par for the course.

Cleveland's event was pretty run-of-the-mill by Trump standards, especially after the last few days. Violence erupted in Chicago Friday night as Trump supporters and protesters clashed after he canceled an event. Earlier on Saturday, a protester reportedly tried to climb onto the stage as Trump spoke in Dayton, and the Secret Service responded by storming the stage and encircling the Republican White House front-runner.

Trump attacked the Chicago protesters from the stage in Cleveland, blaming them for all the violence that occurred and warning that they just enraged his supporters more.

"Yesterday in Chicago we had a little bit of a problem. We came. We were not allowed to exercise our first amendment rights," he said to huge boos from the crowd. "It just makes all of our friends and supporters more angry."

There wasn’t any violence at the rally, though there were multiple interruptions by protesters and one turned into a minor physical altercation. But people were braced for much worse.

A protestor and a Donald Trump supporter clash in the audience as Trump speaks in Cleveland.

Image: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images

Both Trump supporters and the protesters roped off across the street said they were worried a standoff would happen once again.

And both sides seemed ready to brawl if needed.

Trump backers booed when the loudspeaker played a recording of a warning not to hurt protesters — one that’s been standard at Trump events for months now.

"If a protester starts demonstrating in the area around you please do not harm or touch the protester. This is a peaceful rally," the loudspeaker intoned to a rain of boos.

"These troublemakers should be put in their place. You can’t have mob rule… I was in the National Guard in a lot of riots so I know how to do it," Trump supporter Rich Brown, who lives in suburban Cleveland, told Mashable.

Brown said he’d been involved in putting down the protests during the 1968 Chicago riots at the Democratic National Convention and thought what happened Friday night was similar, accusing the protesters of intentionally creating violence.

"Last night was disgraceful," he said.

Anti-Trump protesters were delighted that they’d forced him to cancel his rally. And while most stressed they wanted peaceful protests some were ready to fight back.

Lavitta Murray (on the right in the above photo), a liberal organizer from Cleveland, scoffed when asked if she was worried about the violence in Chicago.

"Worried? Not at all, need more. Whatever it takes to stop Trump, whatever it takes. He’s a violent racist, he’s nasty," she said. "He’s already using violence, can’t you see? He’s using violence against the immigrants, he’s using violence right now today… This is a nonviolent demonstration. However, Trump starts the violence, he’s a violent man."

Police were out in force to make sure that didn’t happen. Even for a Trump event, there were a lot of them around — on horseback, in cars, walking around the crowd inside in twos and threes. Policemen privately admitted that they were out en masse.

Tons of cops at @realdonaldtrump in Cleveland, visibly more than recent rallies post-Chicago. Cop tells me "there are lots of us here, lots"

And they kept the dozens of protesters as far away as possible from the pro-Trump folks. The worst Trump backers could do as the protesters waved signs and chanted alongside the road on the way in was yell things like "Hillary sucks!" and "Go home you dirty hippies!" from their car windows.

Trump later blamed Bernie Sanders for all the protesters who come out against him.

"Bernie was saying 'Mr. Trump should speak to his crowd.' You know where they come from? Bernie’s crowd, they’re Bernie’s crowd," he said after the first of a half-dozen protesters interrupted his speech to loud boos less than a minute into his speech. "Every five minutes or so, one of Bernie’s people."

Sanders fired back.

"As is the case virtually every day, Donald Trump is showing the American people that he is a pathological liar. Obviously, while I appreciate that we had supporters at Trump’s rally in Chicago, our campaign did not organize the protests," Sanders said in a statement. “What caused the protests at Trump’s rally is a candidate that has promoted hatred and division against Latinos, Muslims, women, and people with disabilities, and his birther attacks against the legitimacy of President Obama."

Trump has told his supporters he’ll "defend you in court" if they hurt protesters. His backers have been caught on camera punching and shoving protesters. And his campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, allegedly assaulted a female reporter Tuesday night to keep her from asking Trump a question he didn’t like. But Trump claimed that it’s always the protesters who have been starting the violence — including Friday night in Chicago.

"They say 'Donald Trump has to speak to his people, they’re violent.' My people aren’t violent. It’s these people who come in," he claimed.

Mashable
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